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This is CBC News. I'm Rick McInnes Ray.
And here's what's making news right now.
Alberta premier Ed Stelmak increases the provincial take
from the oil sector by $1.4 billion,
but that's far less than a review panel's recommendation.
And the money won't be paid until 2009.
Nova Scotia Reservist Matthew Wilcox is charged with manslaughter
in the death of a comrade in Afghanistan.
Corporal Kevin McGinney was shot in the chest
in his tent at the Kandahar Air Base.
The Transportation Safety Board says a defective rail
caused a CN derailment two years ago in Alberta.
Hundreds of thousands of liters of oil spilled into a popular lake
west of Edmonton.
And one of the 15 most wanted criminals in the U.S.
is arrested by police in New Brunswick.
The convicted killer was pulled over in a stolen van.
That's what's making news across Canada.
Now we take you around the world.
Over the next half hour, we'll bring you stories from around the world,
including tough new sanctions against Iran by Washington
and following in the footsteps of Avita,
is Argentina ready for La Presidenta?
But we begin in Southern California,
where the hot, dry winds are fueling more than a dozen wildfires.
Well, they're finally dying down,
giving weary residents and firefighters reason to hope
all the blazes might soon be under control.
More on the day's events from the CBC's Neil MacDonald.
Finally, after lives lost and hundreds of millions in smoking devastation,
the men and women who have been sweating and fighting
and barely sleeping are starting to win.
Captain Dave Apple has been fighting the fire called Santiago,
just north of here.
Do you think this whole situation is turning around?
I think we're headed for a good time, yeah.
At its peak, he says, the heat was so ferocious
that the force of convection was actually uprooting trees.
Some time yesterday, he said, he felt things turning around.
Now, the fire is all but contained.
Authorities now suspect that the Santiago fire
and perhaps a few others were deliberately set.
Whoever did this knew what they were doing.
It was not accidental.
But the winds from the desert have come to stillness,
and humidity is rising,
meaning the airborne drops of fire retardant are now making a difference.
And help keeps arriving.
One of the largest fire bombers in the world arrived in Lake Elsinore last night.
The big fires around Los Angeles are now under control,
and even here in San Diego County, where the most stubborn fires remain,
large numbers of people are being allowed to go home.
The crowds at the big stadium that served as a shelter are thinning.
They just announced our area on Rancho Bernardo is open,
so we get to pack up and go home.
Yay!
It's been a remarkably well-coordinated effort.
Even gangs of prisoners, anxious to earn some time off their sentences,
trooped off to fight the fires.
Some, said crew captain Michael Mandel,
actually learned the trade and become professional firefighters.
Very good job. We end up, we're quite proud of them. We work hard.
Politicians like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and, today, a visiting President Bush,
are understandably eager to associate themselves with such success.
It's very important for those who are wondering about their future to know
there's a lot of good citizens all across America who are praying for your future,
and I really want to stand with you.
Even once the fires are all contained, though,
they'll continue to smolder and flare and burn underground for several weeks.
And if the drought here continues,
there'll be an abundance of dry tinder to serve as fuel for any new fires.
Meanwhile, the population here just keeps on growing,
moving ever further into what everybody knows are high-risk zones.
Neil McDonald, CBC News in San Diego County.
So far, no one's tallied up the number of animals killed or displaced by the fires,
but to keep the numbers down, San Diego officials
urged voters to bring their pets with them,
even allowing smaller ones into some shelters.
I cannot leave, you know, let the two dogs stay outside.
Larger animals like these horses were brought to temporary shelters,
and even some llamas were rescued after being found wandering in a panic.
Coming up, we'll also have these stories.
I'm David Common in Nordwijk, the Netherlands,
where NATO defence ministers have wrapped up a two-day meeting,
what they decided coming up later on Around the World.
The Vatican, Knights Templar, persecution, heresy,
publication of secret documents exposing the wrongs,
and this cavern in Hertfordshire, England.
I'm Adrienne Arsenault, and I'll connect all the mystical dots later on Around the World.
The US has imposed tough new sanctions against Iran.
Its punishment for what the Americans say is Iran's support for terrorism
and its quest for nuclear weapons.
The new measures target the finances of Iran's military elite
and its Revolutionary Guard forces.
And for more, I'm joined now by the CBC's Henry Champ.
Henry, what's in play here?
Rick, these are the toughest sanctions that have ever been leveled against Iran
since the 1979 US embassy hostage-taking in Tehran.
Americans, American companies, and all American business entities
can no longer do any business with any of the Iranian state-owned banks,
and that includes the giant conglomerate, the Mellie Bank.
All Iranian funds and assets abroad and here domestically in the United States must be frozen,
and there will be stiff penalties for any Americans or their companies
that would break these sanctions.
Here's what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had to say this morning.
Unfortunately, the Iranian government continues to spurn our offer of open negotiations,
instead threatening peace and security by pursuing nuclear technologies
that can lead to a nuclear weapon, building dangerous ballistic missiles,
supporting Shia militants in Iraq and terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon,
and the Palestinian territories.
The IRGC is so deeply entrenched in Iran's economy and commercial enterprises,
it is increasingly likely that if you are doing business with Iran,
you are doing business with the IRGC.
And the U.S. timing, Henry, why now?
Why now is principally tied to what the Pentagon believes is an escalation
in Iranian interference in the Iraqi conflict and growing support for terrorism internationally.
There are missile sales, says America, to rogue nations,
and there are continued efforts by Iran to gain nuclear weapons.
Secretary Rice says, however, there still is an opportunity for dialogue diplomatically.
Anywhere, anytime, she says, she will meet with her counterpart from Iran.
But Iran must make significant changes in its foreign policy.
All right, the CBC's Henry Champ in Washington.
In northwestern Pakistan, a suicide car bomber attacked a military convoy,
killing 19 people, injuring 29 more.
The attack comes a day after 2,500 government troops were sent to the region
in response to increasing attacks by supporters of a local militant cleric.
An ammunition truck was caught in the blast.
The resulting fire sprayed bullets everywhere.
The death toll is expected to rise because 45 soldiers were inside the truck that exploded.
In Sudan, it's been confirmed that a Canadian is one of two hostages
kidnapped by rebels from Darfur after they attacked an oil field earlier this week.
The CBC's David McGuffin has that story.
The Justice and Equality Movement, the Darfur rebel group that says it's taken
the Canadian and the Iraqi oil workers hostage in central Sudan,
says it has done so because foreign oil workers are helping the Sudanese government
to fund their war effort in the Darfur region.
The Justice and Equality Movement says it's giving all foreign oil workers
one week to get out of the country.
The two men were taken hostage in the rebel attack on an oil installation
in the Kordofan region of central Sudan on Wednesday.
The Sudanese military has confirmed the attack did happen,
but they have called it quote, insignificant, unquote.
The rebel movement says that foreign oil companies, especially Chinese-led ones,
are the key to the successful push by the Sudanese government
to put down the rebels in the Darfur region.
Certainly China gets about 30 percent of its crude oil needs out of Sudan.
This oil installation was owned by a Chinese-led consortium.
China is the single largest investor in Sudan.
And also there have been reports by Human Rights Watch and even the United Nations
that says that China is also the prime supplier of weapons to the Sudanese military,
especially for the Sudanese military in Darfur.
Human Rights Watch has said that the Chinese are breaking UN sanctions in doing so.
The warfare in Darfur has now been going on for four years, more than four years now.
Over 200,000 people have been killed and about two million more have been forced from their homes.
David McGuffin, CBC News, Nairobi.
The Da Vinci Co., the quest for the Holy Grail.
They conjure images of medieval knights, the Crusades and dark mysteries.
Today the Vatican threw some light on one of those secrets from the 14th century,
the story of the Knights Templar.
Here's the CBC's Adrienne Arsenault.
There are few institutions as studied at being secretive.
What the Vatican really knows it rarely tells.
But it is today in the mood to show and sell some of its most coveted documents.
They are transcripts of the trials of the Knights Templar
that led to members of the medieval order being tortured and burned at the stake.
Proof that 700 years ago the Pope had absolved the Templars of heresy,
even though the persecution continued.
Documents lost for centuries.
The Vatican has now produced 800 copies, going for $8,000 apiece.
They will sell.
The Knights Templar, of course, have exercised a sort of mythological function in history.
I mean, they're the murdered magicians.
People build stories about them.
Stories that they were the keepers of the Holy Grail who grew too strong.
That, at least, is Hollywood's line.
So the Vatican issued secret orders to be open simultaneously all across Europe.
The Pope had declared the Knights Templar saint worshippers
and said God had charged him with cleansing the earth of these heretics.
That's one version.
Whoever really ordered the cleansing, it was widespread and brutal.
So was that it for the Knights Templar?
No, not at all.
Many of them scattered across the nations, had to somehow find ways to keep meeting,
but in secret, which explains why we are heading deep underground to a cavern in Hertfordshire, England.
Well, we think this is a place for initiation into a secret society.
Inside the cavern, carving some 700 years old,
Templar crosses an image of St. George, his sword pointing to a line of 13 figures.
It's saying, look, the Templars were military men with a Christian purpose.
Clear evidence they were here once.
Are they still around?
Modern legend says probably right here in Hertford,
rumoured to have tunnels under the local wine store and dress shop.
A frankly cranky town, when asked about the secretive order of the Knights Templar.
We met a man with ancestral links to them who may or may not still be one.
Why does everyone get strange here when we ask them about the Templars?
This is an unusual town in many ways, and it's very difficult to get people to talk about certain aspects of the history of this town,
especially where the Templars may be involved.
The mystique lives.
Many are thrilled the documents are out and say now an apology is due, but it's the Vatican.
No one really expects that anytime soon.
Adrienne Arsenault, CBC News, Hertfordshire.
Time now for a quick look at other international news as we take you around the world in 80 seconds.
The police and protesters faced off in Bolivia.
Demonstrators are angry over a government plan to cut fuel subsidies in one province and give the money to elderly Bolivians as a yearly bonus.
30 skeletons have been discovered in another mass grave in eastern Bosnia.
Forensic scientists believe they were brought here by Bosnian Serbs from other sites in order to cover up a mass killing of Muslim men in 1994.
The world's biggest jumbo jet completed its first flight with paying passengers, but tickets don't come cheap.
Get ready to fork over $11,000 if you want to sleep your way from Singapore to Sydney in a real bed.
Speaking of flying high, this historic meeting took place more than 300 kilometres above Earth after a space shuttle discovery docked at the International Space Station.
Engineers are now examining photos of the shuttle's underbelly to see if it sustained any damage during liftoff.
These jockeys got a wild ride at the annual water buffalo races in Thailand.
The event was started by farmers looking to have some fun after the rice harvesting season.
Coming up in two minutes, Argentina votes and the back story from our Joe Stossinger.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is poised to replace her husband as president of Argentina in an election this Sunday.
Joe tells us about the power couple that shot to the top.
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NATO Defense Ministers have wrapped up their talks in the Netherlands with fresh commitments from as many as nine nations to send more soldiers to Afghanistan.
The CBC's David Common has that story.
At this high security summit, political lobbying was at its height.
Canada's delegation, led by Defense Minister Peter McKay, appealed directly to other ministers to send soldiers and specialized equipment, particularly much-needed helicopters, a point pressed home by NATO's Secretary General.
I admit that the pressure on the forces is very big indeed.
Bonjour, Dobrydien.
At the conference, nine nations, including Germany and France, indicated they'd send more soldiers.
But it's not clear how many or where they'd go.
It's going to take, you know, ten years or so just to work through and build an army to whatever the final number is that Afghanistan will have and make them professional and then set them up so that they can continue as an army and meet their security demands here.
While political will can often be an issue, cost is certainly another.
So the NATO leadership has proposed one option to get around that issue.
NATO members pay their own way on missions, but the alliance is suggesting those costs, like risk, should be shared.
Let me give you an example.
If a country has helicopters but can't afford to even deploy them into theatre or operate them in theatre, can a country that doesn't have those helicopters but has a checkbook provide financial support?
The ministers also heard more needed to be done to convince reluctant citizens the mission is right.
The Afghan president certainly had that message today on a visit to London.
Afghanistan has been able to build thousands of kilometres of roads with the help of the international community, the raising of the Afghan National Army, the work on the police.
But many of the European ministers leaving this meeting head back to countries where there is strong opposition to having troops in Afghanistan, especially in the violent areas, let alone adding any more.
David Common, CBC News, NordviketheNetherlands.
In Burma, also known as Myanmar, a rare occurrence today, Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed out of house arrest, but it was a hollow freedom.
Instead, she was taken to meet one of Burma's military leaders.
The meeting lasted about an hour, no word what if anything came out of it.
The Nobel laureate and pro-democracy leader has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years.
She is already the first lady of Argentina. After this Sunday's election, she could become its president.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is expected to win a decisive victory despite offering few concrete proposals and largely avoiding the media.
Here's the CBC's Joe Schlesinger now on how she and the country got to this pivotal point.
Eat peanut!
Eat your heart out Hillary Clinton. Move over Evita Perón.
Make way for Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. She's about to become...
Presidenta, acostumbrense todos. Ta. Presidenta.
Presidenta, that's right, a female president.
Get used to it all of you, she says. Not just men, but women presidents too.
Argentines had indeed better get used to it because Cristina Kirchner seems a shoo-in to succeed her husband Nesta Kirchner, who is ending a four-year term.
Cristina is no mere first lady. She's a senator and unlike Hillary Clinton, became one before her husband was elected president.
Senator Clinton of course is trying to do the same thing, but she's still a long way from getting Bill's old job in the White House.
And being a woman is very much a part of her problems.
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Given that in most things Argentina is much more of a macho society than the United States, or most other western countries for that matter, you'd think it would be more difficult there.
That it isn't is very much due to Evita Perón and her enduring hold on the Argentine imagination.
Evita's glamour and charisma was the driving force of her husband Juan Perón's long hold on the presidency.
He provided the enforcer muscle, she the crowd pleasing show of heart.
In her day though, for all her popularity she was shut out from her dream of running even for vice president.
Today Cristina Kirchner, who combines expertise with glamour, has a 25 point lead in the polls over her nearest rival.
The only question seems to be whether she can make it in the first round on Sunday or in a run off.
There's already talk in Argentina of Cristina and Néstor playing tag with the presidency, taking turns at running for the next 12 years.
In other countries that would be written off as an implausible fairy tale.
In Argentina though, such fairy tales are the stuff of history.
Unfortunately for Argentina, its fairy tales have usually ended with Little Red Riding Hood being gobbled up by the wolf.
Over the past 80 years Argentina has had three dozen presidents.
A parade of generals riding rough shot over its people.
And populist politicians promising the moon.
Only three served out their elected term.
Some lasted only a few months or even just days.
Most were forced out by military coups or other means.
The result, a rich country growing ever poorer.
A hundred years ago Argentines were as prosperous as Canadians and at times even richer.
Now they have to get by on less than half of Canadian incomes.
The main problem, the changes in regime were all too often accompanied by drastic turns in economic direction.
The result, artificially stimulated boomlets followed by ever deeper busts.
The economic busts in turn led to more political unrest and often violence that would bring on another regime change and more economic tinkering.
The history of the past 30 years tells a story.
First, a military dictatorship that fought a dirty war against its own people.
In which thousands of civilians were kidnapped, tortured and killed.
The general's regime collapsed in 1982 after the Argentine army was humiliatingly defeated by British forces in a war over the Falkland Islands.
Left behind a society traumatized by the dirty war and an economy in ruins.
In the next 20 years seven presidents tried to clean up the mess and failed.
They governed by printing ever more money and borrowing abroad.
Inflation metastasized into hyperinflation.
In one month at the end of the 90s it hit an annualized rate of close to 5,000%.
It only got worse.
By 2002 the country was on verge of collapse.
Doors shut by, bankruptcy were everywhere.
Argentina defaulted on 150 billion dollars in foreign debt payments.
The largest such default in history.
With unemployment at 24% scavenging became a way of life for many Argentines.
Half the population was reduced to living below the poverty line.
Looting and violence became commonplace.
Argentina had hit bottom.
Then in 2003 Nester Kirchner became president.
His strength was not anything he had done,
but rather that he was an all but unknown governor of a backwater province
not connected to the country's disasters.
He surprised them all.
Under his leadership economic growth has galloped along at 8% a year.
Joblessness and poverty are down.
The foreign debt has been restructured
and potentially rebellious elements of the military command purged.
There are, however, clouds on the horizon.
Inflation is growing fast again at more than 20% by some counts
threatening what could become a replay of the old Argentine nightmarish scenario.
Still, if Nester Kirchner had chosen to run again
he would have been reelected by a wider margin than his wife.
Why he chose to step aside for her is a mystery that tantalizes Argentines.
And then there's the mystery of Cristina Kirchner herself.
What will Queen Cristina, as she's widely known, bring to her countrymen?
Another fairy tale a la Vita and so many others that end in tragedy?
Or something that Argentina has been woefully short of?
A stay that caused sensible continuity
that will give Argentines a badly needed feeling of security?
If she does, that would indeed be an unusual fairy tale for Argentina.
A story with a happy ending.
Joe Schlesinger, CBC News, Toronto.
Well, how to prepare yourself for what you believe is certain death.
It was a question confronting journalist Alan Johnston,
held hostage by Islamic militancy in Gaza for 114 months.
But now, for the first time since his release last July,
he's spoken of it at length on the BBC's Panorama program.
Here's an excerpt on the record.
Imagine one of them's degree of calm and control.
And that's our journey. Pardon me, this just in.
Chad's government and four rebel groups have signed a peace accord.
Reports say the deal includes an immediate ceasefire.
That will end more than two years of sp-